American Blonde - Specialty grains or no?

Hey all,
I'm planning the recipe for an upcoming attempt at Ska's True Blonde Ale and I'm torn between adding specialty grains or not. My worry is that without them the beer will be very bland and/or "watery". The issue with this is that steeping grains may darken the color beyond the shade I'm looking for. Specifically, this color:
http://beer-taster.com/wp-content/uploads/yapb_cache/ska_true_blonde_ale.3wadfyfk9x2c840wc0080s0gs.6ylu316ao144c8c4woosog48w.th.jpeg

So, my options are either to use Pilsen DME and some amount of grains, or to simply go with Briess Golden Light DME.

For reference, here is my current draft of the recipe:

Busty Brunette Blonde
(Ska True Blonde Ale Clone)

OG: 1.055
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.5%
IBUs: 13.34

2.5 gallon boil, 5 gallon batch

5 lbs Light DME
1 lb. Wheat DME
4oz Honey (last 20 min)

.5 oz Perle 7.8% (60 min)
.5 oz Tettnang 4.5% (30 min)
.25 oz Cascade 6.4% (5 min)
.5 oz Tettnang 4.5% (5 min)

Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale Yeast
or Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast

I have nothing of value to add, but wHen I first started reading this recipe, it looked very similiar to the AHS Strawberry Lager I brewed for my wife this weekend.

I would be interested in hearing how this turns out.

I checked out the Strawberry lager recipe you mentioned, and out of curiosity, how does the color you got compare to the posted link in the top post? I couldn't find specifics on the 1.5 lbs of specialty grain on AHS, having bought the recipe does it specify what kind you're steeping?

Honestly, its in the bucket right now, about 10 days old. However, based on similiar Extract Recipes I've done, I think it will be very similiar to what you linked.

I am going to move to secondary one night this week, so if you'd like I could take a pic to give you an idea.

Sure, that would be great!

I make a cream ale that uses very light specialty grains to add a little body and flavor creating a very light color beer. The specialties I use are 6 oz Caramel 20, 6 oz White Wheat Malt, 6 oz Pale Malt and 4 oz Flaked Corn with a pilsen or extra light DME, finished color is very similar to the blonde of of your picture, great summer time beer, can drink the heck out of it and not be silly but has more taste than a commercial light beer... speaking of which I think it is time to brew up a batch

Thanks for the input. I've been checking out the Extra Light DME and trying to calculate SRM and I've got a new draft going with a little bit of Munich 20L :

Busty Brunette Blonde v.2
(Ska True Blonde Ale Clone)

OG: 1.057
FG: 1.014
ABV: 5.6%
IBUs: 12.81

2.5 gallon boil, 5 gallon batch

5 lbs Extra Light DME
1 lb. Wheat DME
.5 lb Munich 20 L
4oz Honey (last 20 min)

.5 oz Perle 7.8% (60 min)
.5 oz Tettnang 4.5% (30 min)
.25 oz Cascade 6.4% (5 min)
.5 oz Tettnang 4.5% (5 min)

Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale Yeast

The partial ounces of hops are kindof inconvenient but I'm trying to stick to the quoted 13 IBUs. Also, the original malt bill was
2 row 78%
Carapils 9%
Munich 20L 6%
Red Wheat Malt 3%

Hence the Munich 20L. I'm trying to represent the small amount of wheat using Wheat DME, though I wonder if using Wheat or Flaked Wheat might be better suited for that purpose. By my math, this draft should be 5.5 SRM, which I think is fairly close to the target. I'm excited as hell to brew this batch in 3 weeks (after I get that irish red out of the carboy) but at the moment I'm still torn about which, if any, specialty grains to use.